for the Mary month of May –
Pints with Aquinas on the BVM and objections to the Church’s teachings on her (specifically rebutting them):
https://twitter.com/danielmitsuiart/status/1657431174124281856
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@danielmitsuiart
](https://twitter.com/danielmitsuiart)Our Lady of Fatima was seen by three shepherd children in Portugal in 1917. I based this drawing loosely on the statue in the Chapel of the Apparitions. She has a rosary about her, indicating the request for daily rosary prayers.
Today is the feast of Our Lady of Fatima.
copying the thread:
The sunburst behind her head represents the Miracle of the Sun seen on 13 October 1917. She stands on a pattern of tiles in the Portuguese azulejo style, including ones that bear the calligraphed Arabic names for Mary and Fatima.
Other tiles spell the words Credo, Spero, Adoro and Amo, referring to the prayer that the three children learned from an angel: My God, I believe, I adore, I hope, and I love Thee! I ask pardon for those who do not believe, do not adore, do not hope and do not love Thee.
Fifteen tiles with roses refer to the fifteen mysteries of the Rosary.
Daniel Mitsui, the artist, made the drawing originally for a private commission:
OUR LADY of FATIMA ~ DRAWING by DANIEL MITSUI
Remember: tomorrow (May 18) is Ascension Thursday – Holy Day of Obligation (go to Mass!)
I live in a diocese that does it on Sunday. 
Oh, interesting. I’m used to feast days being transferred 1-2 days to a Sunday, but not from a Thursday.
My diocese also does it on Sunday. Been like that for 10 or so years now
Yeah, when I went to Mass this morning and looked in the missal, it mentioned that it’s often transferred to the 7th Sunday of Easter.
I think that the Archdiocese of NY figures there’s a parish on every corner, you can manage to get yourself to Mass on Thursday.
Probably, in the parishes where I grew up in the Southeast, when the parishes were thinner on the ground, they probably transferred the solemnity more often. But I was a kid and don’t remember that detail. But I’ve been in NY since I was 22. So that’s all I remember.
Oh well, enjoy the readings on Sunday, then.
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https://twitter.com/HerreidJohn/status/1659169268255145985
It doesn’t make a huge amount of difference to me… I would’ve been there anyway.
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Planning on visiting St. Paul’s Cathedral in St. Paul, MN this Sunday. One thought was to attend their 8am Mass (based on the posted schedule, it looks to be about an hour).
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Is this worth the experience? (for reference, Mrs. VA and I are pretty Protestant)
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Anything of interest from a Catholic perspective regarding this weekend? I saw that today is one of the “Obligatory Holy Days” . . . but didn’t know if there was additional significance to the weekend as well.
TIA
If that diocese transfers the Feast of the Ascension to Sunday, the readings will be about it.
If you want to recite the prayers with the congregation, the “Our Father” ends sooner than you’d expect. 
You may want to look at the parish’s website to see if there is a particular choir at that service. Our cathedral has a choir with a serious choral music background/repetoire at one time, and other choirs at the other masses.
Eta, thx meep, i should not try to respond while walking to a meeting.
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Assumption? What? [Ascension]
Anyway, if you’ve never been to a Catholic Mass before, let’s just make it simple –
There are two main parts to the Mass:
Liturgy of the Word [readings from the Bible]
Liturgy of the Eucharist
[by the way, there can be hymns throughout, which are not necessarily part of Mass - cathedral Masses are more likely to have music at all Masses, but our early Masses don’t have music at all the places we could have music]
Liturgy of the Word
There are introductory prayers (we start and end everything w/ sign of the cross, and some of us are a bit “extra” in signing ourselves throughout),
The focus of this part are readings from the Bible - for a Sunday Mass there are three readings, plus a Psalm (which is participatory)
1st reading – usually from the Old Testament, but during the Easter season, it’s from Acts
Psalm - this is participatory – everybody can participate! Don’t have to be Catholic to participate in this. There are verses and a response that the congregation does. On Sundays it’s usually sung.
2nd reading – usually from epistles in New Testament
Gospel – [what it says on the tin]
The readings are pretty much set. We have a 3-year cycle (A, B, C) for Sunday Masses, and 2-year cycle (I/II) for daily Masses which indicate the readings for the Masses. So you can go in knowing what the readings will be.
After the Gospel, the priest (or deacon sometimes) will give a homily usually based on the readings or on the feast day.
This ends with the Creed & the petitions of the faithful – the creed is usually Nicene, and many Protestants could join in.
Liturgy of the Eucharist
Loads of prayers & responses. Transubstantiation, Agnus Dei, Sanctus, etc.
This is not for the non-Catholics to participate in, except for the Our Father, which is for all Christians. All the sit, kneel, stand stuff.
There is usually a lot of music in this part of the Mass.
Ima go sanctus!!!
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